June 2024

[millerd]

30th June: Despite cloud and a bit of drizzle for a while, the skies brightened around lunchtime. Even with damp in the air the Meadow Browns and Skippers were active on my local patch today and as things improved I ended up seeing over 300 butterflies of 13 species. Highlights included sightings (after the gap between broods) of all three common White butterflies, including new male and female GVW...

male

female

female underside

...plus more of the Marbled variety.

The Essex Skippers outnumbered Smalls by about 4:1, and included this heavily marked individual.

Perhaps the most welcome sighting was of a brand new Small Tortoiseshell - there were so few in the spring I did wonder whether I might find none at all this summer.

The final noteworthy butterflies were a trio of new Gatekeepers, my first of the year - of which this is the only one to open up uncluttered by vegetation.

The full species list for the day:

Meadow Brown
Small Heath
Speckled Wood
Marbled White
Gatekeeper
Comma
Red Admiral
Small Tortoiseshell
Small White
Large White
Green-veined White
Essex Skipper
Small Skipper

No lycaenid butterflies at all today - their turn to have a break between broods. A full commentary and more detail coming soon to my PD. The month certainly ended on an upbeat note, though I have to say things haven't been too bad at all locally during June.

Dave

[David Lazarus]

Highlights included sightings (after the gap between broods) of all three common White butterflies, including new male and female GVW...

Oh wow, Dave, stunning Green-veined White with such dark markings

Site visit Meadgate Fields Open Space 30/06/2024

I popped out for a while, when the sun suddenly appeared, and visited my favorite local meadow to see what was happening while I was away. And there was the first Marbled White of the year - so the 5 last year have managed once again to sustain the population. Always a joy to find out they have succeeded again. To put it in to perspective, this is a truly isolated colony with no Marbled Whites seen in the rest of Chelmsford within a 5 mile radius [so far, anyway].

Marbled White
Meadgate Fields Open Space 30/06/2024

And another highlight of this little meadow which looks more like a wasteland than a lovely chalk grassland:

The meadow at Meadgate Fields Open Space
end of June 2024

are the skippers - the cuties - which thrive in the long grass which is still sparse enough to support butterflies rather than the rank, nutrient rich grasslands we see in most places around here.

29 Essex Skippers today, which is a great number for the start of the season:

Essex Skipper male x 2
Meadgate Fields Open Space 30/06/2024

But the highlight today was the other one. All the skippers I checked were Essex. Then I spotted a beautiful young female actively searching a sheath of grass and assumed an Essex until I was clicking away and realised, well what are the odds [7 out of 100], a Small Skipper ovipositing:

Small Skipper female ovipositing within a sheath of fine grass
Meadgate Fields Open Space 30/06/2024

happy days!

[Ian Pratt]

Apologies for posting my recent foreign trip on this thread instead of overseas. I will repost there if required.

[millerd]

Once again, the month ends and reliable stats for the weather during June have been compiled by the Met. Office. I will refer to those for Heathrow, as it is as within a couple of km of the patch where my local butterfly sightings are gathered. Naturally enough, stats for other locations around the country (and even in the SE) will be different - perhaps markedly.

The average daily high for June 2024 here was 22.0 degrees, compared to the 30-year average (1991-2020) of 21.57.

Sunshine hours were 206, compared to the 30-year average of 208.

Rainfall was 12.4 mm, compared to the 30-year average of 47.25.

The first half of the month was cool (almost every day below 21 degrees), including a string of five 17 degree days on the trot. By contrast, the second half was much warmer with every day (except 30th) 22 degrees or higher, including two days above 30 degrees. The result of this dichotomy was a month that was almost spot on average, just a shade above the norm and the coolest since 2019.

Sunshine was also mostly in the second half of the month, but again overall was around the average of nearly 7 hours a day.

However, the standout feature of the month was the lack of rain - only around a quarter of the long-term June average - which helps explain why all the long grass and high vegetation resulting from the warm wet spring is now rapidly drying out and yellowing.

With things here so close to average, any fluctuations in the butterfly populations here are less likely to be attributable to the month's weather - I will no doubt comment on this aspect in my PD when it reaches the end of June.

Dave

[Neil Freeman]

Naturally enough, stats for other locations around the country (and even in the SE) will be different - perhaps markedly.

Indeed Dave. I often note how different your patch is compared to mine despite just being at the other end of the M40. The grass round here is still very long and lush, the longest I have seen it for many a year with no drying out yet.
Once again the notable feature of the weather up here has been cloud, lots of it.

Cheers,

Neil.

[millerd]

Naturally enough, stats for other locations around the country (and even in the SE) will be different - perhaps markedly.

Once again the notable feature of the weather up here has been cloud, lots of it.

Cheers,

Neil.

I have to say, Neil, I was surprised that there had been as much sun as the stats showed. However, on reflection I realised that on a good many days all the sunshine had been first thing: with June sunrises being at 5am or earlier, some days could clock up four hours or so before many folk are out and about. I had several mornings when I went out before 8 and saw most of the day's butterflies before cloud built and spoiled things by 11 o'clock.

Dave

[aeshna5]

Yesterday was yet another of those days with a glorious sunny start but by 10.30 was largely overcast & pretty dismal in the afternoon. At the time mentioned I started to lead a wildflower walk in a west London cemetery. Despite the cloud we did see c10 Meadow Brown, 6 Marbled Whites, Holly Blue, one each of Small & Essex Skipper; the latter new for the year for me. Somebody else spotted a Speckled Wood. A few Cinnabar larvae on Ragwort.

When I finished the walk I continued to the gardens of Fulham Palace where it was wholly overcast. The only butterfly seen was amazingly only my first Large White of the year! Again bee numbers were very low & hoverflies just about non-existent in a place normally brimming with insects.

At least a few birds around including Sparrowhawk & at least 4 House Martins while a couple of Blackcaps were still singing.

[millerd]

The Met Office overview of the month is at the end of this link.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/n ... for-the-uk
Aside from the marked dryness of the month, it really wasn't very far off the average. June 2023 spoiled us!

Dave